by Roy Pedersen

When the growing town of Ardrossan was created a burgh of the barony in 1846, John Barr, a local shipbuilder, was appointed provost, a position he held until his death at his home, Kilmahew House in 1884.

His house, built at the time, stood in Montgomery Street.

It was a handsome building that later became the council’s municipal offices and chambers until the demise of the burgh in 1974, after which sadly the fine building was demolished.

John Barr was undoubtedly a major force in the development of the town and harbour.

Although ship and boat building had been undertaken at Ardrossan on a small scale since at least 1825, a more ambitious entity emerged when John Barr entered into a partnership with James Shearer in 1842 to establish the shipbuilding firm of Barr & Shearer operated on land leased from the Ardrossan Harbour Company.

The early tonnage built by Barr & Shearer was of small wooden trading and fishing vessels.

There were exceptions, however. The 1,160 ton clipper ship Contest, launched from the yard in 1853 was celebrated in the Herald as “the largest timber-built vessel which has ever been launched on the Clyde”.

In the 1870s, the firm’s name was changed to the Ardrossan Shipbuilding Company and then in 1891 to Ardrossan Dockyard Limited by which time the main output was steel steamships.

In 1899 the company was dissolved and a successor company, the Ardrossan Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co Ltd was incorporated, by which time the prosperous yard had three building slips, a graving dock and a repair slip.

During the First World War the new south yard was constructed and the enterprise expanded up to five berths.

A measure of just how important the yard was to the economy of the town may be understood by the 2,300 employed in 1916.

From 1919, the yard was managed by Harland & Wolff and in 1925 a new company, Ardrossan Dockyard Ltd, was incorporated.

By then the yard extended to its maximum extent of 31 acres with eight building berths.

With the Wall Street crash of 1929, a gradual decline set in. Within a year, the south yard was closed.

There was a revival during the Second World War and in the late 40s and 50s the yard mainly built cargo ships.

In 1962 Archibald D. Kelly acquired the yard and attempted to modernise it, but in 1969 the yard closed and was sold to the McCrindle group.

McCrindle Shipbuilding was formed in 1976 and recommenced ship building taking over the yard number sequence of the earlier Ardrossan Dockyard, in so doing becoming the last operating shipbuilder in the town

McCrindle’s first ship was Maid of Glencoul, a car ferry for Highland Regional Council to operate the Kylesku ferry until replaced by a bridge.

She was subsequently employed on the Corran ferry where she is still held in reserve as spare boat.

McCrindle Shipbuilding finished its last ship, yard number 442, the trawler Spes Melior V, in 1990 and so ended Ardrossan’s long and distinguished association with shipbuilding.

Much of the above information was sourced from the work of Catriona Levy and Ardrossan Local History Workshop report on Ardrossan Shipyards for which I record my thanks.

While the list of notable Ardrossan-built ships is clearly a long one, perhaps I may be permitted to mention a few with which I have some personal interest.

Working back in time, the delightful Cromarty Rose (Yard No 439) of just 13 metres length built in 1986 for the Cromarty – Nigg route, with a capacity for 50 passengers and two cars was the smallest vehicle ferry on Scottish scheduled service in modern times.

Replaced in 2010, she now serves on the Bristol Channel under the name Westward Ho.

Maid of Cumbrae (Yard No 419) of 1953 was one of four identical passenger motor ships ordered by British Railways as part of a modernisation programme of services on the Firth of Clyde.

She was employed initially mainly on short cruises, which formed part of my own “multi-ship” peregrinations round the firth as a youngster.

In 1972, her aft superstructure was removed and she was converted to a stern-loading car ferry for the Gourock – Dunoon crossing.

In 1978, she was sold for operation firstly in the Adriatic and then the Bay of Naples until scrapped in 2006.

In 1944, Lairds Loch (yard No 393) was built for the Burns & Laird Line’s Glasgow – Derry run.

In the late sixties, she was employed periodically on Dublin sailings and in March 1967, I sailed on her from Glasgow to Dublin to visit a young colleen I had a notion of at the time.

The romance did not flourish, but the voyage was memorable.

I can still recall on the homeward passage, leaning on the taff rail right aft, alone in the night, watching the flashes of the Irish Sea lighthouses as the patent log streamed aft and wondering what the future held in store.

And then exactly a hundred years ago, a cargo steamer ordered by the Hudson’s Bay Company was on the stocks soon to be launched.

She was to be named Bayeskimo, a consort to Baychimo, the “Arctic ghost ship” of which I have written previously.

If the editor agrees, I’ll tell of the Saga of the Bayeskimo on the centenary of her launch.